


It's a Newsboy, Charlie Brown

by dyingpoet



Series: newsies ships of new york [3]
Category: Newsies - All Media Types
Genre: Canon Era, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Period Typical Attitudes, Pre-Canon, Pre-Relationship, Slow Burn, this is going to be a ride but it'll (probably) end well
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-24
Updated: 2018-12-30
Packaged: 2019-09-25 22:26:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17129846
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dyingpoet/pseuds/dyingpoet
Summary: Jack met Crutchie in an alley one day and he hasn't been the same since





	1. Alley Cat

**Author's Note:**

> cool so this is a bday fic for my friend?? and it was supposed to be one chapter but i wrote this as the prologue and it became clear that that was not the case

It was Jack’s first day selling by himself and goddamnit if he wasn’t going to prove Paulie wrong; he was gonna sell just fine and that was that, he was already eight for Chrissake. He did get a few strange looks from people, usually women, on the street for dragging his thirty, because he could afford  _ thirty _ now, papes all by himself, but it was good for business. An hour after he hit the street he’d sold half of his papers and even got a nickel from the lady outside the church. Pity sold, and as much as Jack hated to admit it, he was pretty good at looking pitiful.

But pride aside, he was planning on buying himself one of those little pieces of bread he saw in the carts next to the deli if he had enough change to spare; they were steaming this morning and it had gotten awful cold with the wind picking up. 

Walking quickly, he caught the glance of a man about to cross the street and pressed his papers tightly to his chest, curling in on himself the slightest bit. The man’s eyes softened for half a second and Jack let out a soft cough. 

“Buy a pape, sir?”

“Of course,” the man mumbled out, his nervous demeanor throwing Jack a little. “Here.”

He tossed Jack a penny and accepted the newspaper from his shaking hand, bustling off before Jack could get a clean look at his face. It wasn’t often a man was that nice, usually they didn’t say a word, he’d even seen them push some of the younger newsies down a few times. 

There wasn’t a hint of complaint on his lips though, and he darted off into the alley closest to count what he had so far. The lodging fee was three cents, and if he wanted to get any bread he’d need at least another nickel to spare.

Checking over his shoulder, he sat down cross-legged next to a pile of old boxes, labelled in a language he couldn’t make out. Very carefully, he set his papers down and put a stray rock on the top of them to keep the breeze from tearing them away. 

“One, two, three…” Jack’s voice skipped a little and he focused on saying each of the numbers clearly, “four, five, six, se-sev-”

“Seven.”

A voice rang clearly from the other side of the alley and Jack started, pressing his shoulder blades into the wall behind him and drawing his knees to his chest. “Who said that?”

There was a slight shuffle but no response. 

“Ya better come out,” Jack called, voice wavering. Paulie had told him about kids getting mugged before, and he picked up his pennies quickly before continuing. “I ain’t kiddin’.”

There was another shuffle and his time Jack saw a mess of hair disappear behind a box further down the alley, low to the ground. 

Confidence higher, Jack tucked his pennies neatly into his pocket before standing and creeping toward where he’d saw, what he assumed was a kid, disappear.

“C’mon kid-”

Just as he got to the other side of the box, a hand weakly shot out, and Jack stumbled back quickly. 

“Leave me alone!” the kid, Jack had been right, gritted out. He was pressed against the wall, shivering it looked like, with his fists held up, shaking in front of his face. “Go away!”

Immediately Jack knelt down and put his hands up, “I ain’t gonna hurt ya, promise.”

The kid eyed him suspiciously, and kept his hands up, staring up at Jack silently. They stayed like that for a few seconds while Jack settled into a sitting position in front of him. Whoever the kid was, he looked younger than Jack, and skinnier too, which was pretty hard to be.

Tilting his head to the side, Jack tried to make himself seem smaller, like he’d seen Paulie do when they brought new kids into lodging. “It’s okay, I didn’t mean to scare ya, I was scared was all.”

The kid lowered his fists and frowned a little, still shaking. “You was scared of me?”

“Well yeah,” Jack rushed out, a crooked smile across his face, “I didn’t even see ya, and you gotta scary voice.”

Perking up when Jack laughed at his own comment, the kid stuffed his hands into his pockets and shifted to sit more comfortably. “What’s you doin’ out here anyway?”

“Could ask ya the same thing,” Jack quipped, “awful cold don’t ya think?”

The kid nodded quickly, hair falling over his eyes before he blew it out of his face. “Yeah, I been out here for a while, keeps gettin’ colder.”

“Why’re ya alone?”

“Ain’t got no parents anymore.”

Jack nodded sagely and looked at the ground. “Me neither, I’se livin’ with the newsies now.”

The kid blinked slowly, “You’se sellin’ newspapers? For money?”

“Yeah!” Jack said, nodding toward his stack of papers further behind them. “And it ain’t too hard either, and I get a bed at night too; at least one to share.”

When the kid stayed silent, Jack chewed at his lip, trying to remember how many bunks they had open, if any, back home. “What’s your name, kid?”

“Charlie,” the boy said softly, “Charlie Morris.”

Jack stuck out his hand eagerly, which Charlie took tentatively. “I’se Jack Kelly, and if ya want ya can come back with me and sell newspapers, we got enough room, and food to go around, most nights.”

Charlie smiled softly, the first time since Jack had met him. “Really?”

“Yeah,” Jack answered, “and ya can even help me sell the rest of my papes before we go back, see how ta do it and everything.”

Jack lit up when Charlie nodded, and he stood up quickly, walking back toward his last few papers, excited to bring Charlie back. “Ya know, it ain’t that hard, and most of the time-”

Jack cut off, frowning when he didn’t hear any footsteps behind him. He looked back to see Charlie looking down at his feet silently.

“What’s wrong?” Jack asked as he walked back up. “It really ain’t so bad, I swear-”

Charlie shook his head jerkily, looking on the verge of tears. “No, it ain’t- it ain’t that.”

Confused, Jack asked, “Then what then?”

Wordlessly, Crutchie gestured to his right leg, and for the first time Jack noticed that it looked a little off. It was twisted different than the other, and looked smaller in comparison. 

“It hurt?”

Charlie nodded, “It got all messed up when I was sick, pa-” he cut off for a second and wiped a tear away quickly, voice cracking, “pa said he couldn’t afford to take care of it no more, ‘cause I can’t-can’t walk to good on it anymore.”

“Oh,” Jack said quietly. 

He took a pause, and Charlie started crying. 

“Oh, no kid, I wasn’t tryna be mean or nothin’,” he said quickly, taking ahold of Charlie’s shoulder. “I was just thinkin’ was all, if we can get ya a crutch you can still sell real good, and I can help ya walk for today.”

Sniffing an wiping at his eyes, Charlie looked back up at Jack reproachfully. “Ya sure?”

Jack cracked a smile, “Sure I am, ain’t nothin’ better than a hurt kid for sellin’ anyways.”

When Charlie laughed a little, Jack reached out to get an arm behind his shoulders, lifting him up to a rough standing position. “Just grab onto my shoulder, yeah?”

“Yeah,” Charlie said carefully, balancing on his good leg and taking a few good steps with Jack to pick up his papers. “You sure ya can carry me like this all day?”

Jack wasn’t sure, because the kid was awful short and his back ached a little already from stooping down, but he nodded regardless. “Don’t worry ‘bout it.”

They hobbled forward, and when they got to the alley entrance Jack shifted a bit and looked down at Charlie with a smirk. “Watch this.”

A young couple approached the alley and Jack started coughing, tightening his grip on Charlie in the process. 

“Oh you poor dears,” the woman breathed out, hand over her heart as Jack looked up at her through fast blinking eyes. 

“Spare a penny for a pape, miss? I’m tryna feed my little brother, and he ain’t feelin’ too good.”

Surprisingly, Charlie make a weak coughing sound from Jack’s side, and he looked down to see him gripping Jack’s shirt exaggeratedly, busted leg dragging more than it had been a moment before. 

He bit back the smile to make the smile, but damn, the kid was good. 


	2. Nicknames

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Charlie comes to lodging for the first time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> dfjvjdf im so sorry this is hella late, my mental health has been Shaky, and i took a few days off from writing,, i hope you like how this turned out tho!!

Paulie was looking at Jack like he’d dragged in a stray dog instead of a kid, and for some reason Jack felt oddly defensive. Gripping Charlie’s shoulder tighter, he craned his neck to look Paulie in the eye. 

“He can bunk with me,” he challenged, knowing in the back of his mind that Paulie would never turn a kid away, especially a hurt one, but the first thing to com out of his mouth when Jack hauled Charlie in was a long, tired sigh. Jack would sacrifice a meal or two for the kid, he didn’t care. 

Kneeling to get on Jack’s level, which he  _ hated _ by the way, Paulie tilted his head at Charlie, ignoring Jack completely. “Do you wanna stay with us, kid?”

Shyer than before, Charlie nodded wordlessly, and Jack felt his bad leg shaking a bit against his side. 

“Fine, he can-”

“Thanks Paulie!” Jack cut him off, dragging Crutchie over to his bunk before he could be told otherwise. From behind him, he heard another, quickly becoming commonplace, drawn out sigh, which he pointedly ignored. “See, I told ya you could stay.”

Charlie, a bit out of breath, sat down on Jack’s bed, eyes wide. “Does he mean it? He ain’t gonna kick me out?”

He looked scared, something Jack hadn’t noticed when they walked in the door, but probably should have expected. The lodging house was loud after all, and Charlie was probably one of the youngest kids there right now. Jack’d be scared too. 

Just as he was about to open his mouth to reassure him though, a mop of curly hair popped down from the upper bunk. Grinning wide at the two of them with a half eaten sucker in one hand, god knows where he’d gotten it from, Racetrack cocked his head to the side, looking at Charlie.

“Nah, Paulie don’t kick nobody out, kid.”

He let out a yelp when Jack slapped him upside the head and swung down, sticking out his tongue at the older boy. 

“Yeah, ‘else you woulda been out on the street ages ago,” Jack snapped. He noticed Charlie let out a soft laugh at that and grinned wide himself. 

Race growled softly and took a swing at Jack, who’d lived with him long enough to have seen that coming, and they were down on the floor trying to pin each other a moment later. 

“You’se gettin’ slower, huh Jackie?,” Race snarked as Jack pinned his wrists to the floor, sitting on his hips.

“And you’re gettin’ dumber.”

“Smarter than you, when’s the last time you beat me in a card game, huh?”

They started going back and forth, Race trying, and failing, to turn the tables several times before Charlie finally spoke up in a small voice from the bed. 

Both boys turned their heads to look at him, Jack rolling off of Race so that they were both sitting up on the floor. 

“Yeah, Charlie?” Jack asked. He watched the smaller boy shift for a moment, not making eye contact with him or Race. 

“What do ya think we’re gonna do about me walkin’?”

Jack actually felt a pang in his chest at that, the kid just sounded so  _ sad _ . Even Race had the good sense not to crack a joke about the situation for once. “We’ll figure somethin’ out, I think we got an old crutch around here, from when Al broke his leg last year.”

Race nodded, moving to sit on the bed next to Charlie. “Yeah, and you really came to the right business with that leg of yours, limps sell papes.”

“You sure? I don’t wanna get hauled off or nothin’.”

Jack tensed a bit at that, and he was sure Race had too; they’d both been to the Refuge, and it wasn’t any place for any kid, especially one that couldn’t walk too well to begin with. “Don’t worry about that, you’se gonna sell with me for a while until you get the lay of the land, it ain’t too hard.”

Charlie nodded again, and Jack made a note to try and get him to speak up more. He was watching Race, who had bounded off to the other side of the room, and was talking animatedly to Albert, gesturing over to Jack and Charlie, probably looking for the crutch. 

He disappeared into the hallway for a minute, dragging Albert, and Jack took the moment to grab him and Charlie some food. The kid was starving, if his figure and appetite were any indication, and he wolfed down the stale roll Jack offered him ravenously. 

Jack let out a chuckle at that, and got another rare smile from the kid, warmth spreading into his chest from the accomplishment, when Race reappeared, crutch in hand. 

“Found it!”

“You didn’t find nothin’,” Albert said, leaning against the bedpost next to Jack. “I was the one that had to bother Kloppman and ask for it back.”

Race rolled his eyes. “And I’m sure you’se real put out from all that effort, Al.”

Albert shoved Race in the shoulder and Jack grabbed the crutch from Race’s outstretched hand before either of them had the chance to break it. 

“Here ya go, kid,” Jack said, brightening himself at Charlie’s grin. “You wanna try it out? It might be too tall, not sure how big Al was when he was usin’ it.”

The aforementioned and Race were wrestling on the floor, and Jack kicked at them halfheartedly as he passed with Charlie, catching a curse leave Race’s mouth. At seven he was already swearing like a sailor. 

“Like dogs, I swear,” he muttered, letting Charlie lean against a wall while he tested out the crutch. He didn’t want it buckling if it was too old.

It was solid though, and he held it out to Charlie slowly. “Take it slow, yeah? It can take a little bit of gettin’ used to.”

Charlie was looking at the crutch with wide eyes, and nodded seriously as he accepted it. With what Jack would describe as a religious level of care, Charlie put the crutch under his arm and took a step, letting the crutch take the weight his busted leg would have normally. He bit his lip in concentration and took a couple smaller steps before hitting his stride, doing a full circle confidently around Jack before stopping. 

He really did look it was Christmas morning, and Jack couldn’t help but smile himself looking at the kid. “It works then, I guess?”

“Yeah! It’s perfect,” he said, voice shaking slightly before he launched himself at Jack, who stumbled back a step or so in surprise. “Thank you.”

Charlie’s voice was even quieter than normal, wrapped around Jack in a tight hug he had mouth muffled by his shirt, and Jack really could have cried, the kid sure was sweet. 

Charlie pulled back after a second, grin taking over his whole face as he started back toward Jack’s bunk, where Albert and Race were now splayed out, breathing heavy. 

Both of them looked up at the sound of the crutch, Race shooting up actually, and Jack put a hand on Charlie’s shoulder to steady him a bit as they got closer. 

“Hey it works!” Race said, “you’se already walkin’ on it real good, too.”

Charlie nodded enthusiastically, looking over at Albert timidly before saying, “Thank you for the crutch, was real nice of you to give it to me like that.”

Once again Jack felt himself filling with happiness, manners were rare around here and Charlie sounded so sincere it was almost painful. 

“Don’t worry ‘bout it,” Albert answered, taking Charlie in in full for the first time. “What’s your name, kid?”

Charlie glanced up at Jack, who shoved at his shoulder playfully in reassurance, before answering. “Charlie.”

“That ain’t a newsie name,” Race said, dodging a slap from Albert. “What? S’true.”

“Me and Jack got normal names,” Albert countered. 

“Yeah, but this ain’t my real name, and you got family back home, Al,” Jack said, moving to sit next to the two younger boys, leaving Charlie to stand in front of them. “You’se gonna need a newsie name if you don’t gotta home, helps keep any bulls from findin’ you, if they’re lookin’.”

Charlie’s face fell at the mention of his family, and guilt washed over Jack, but, for once, Race was helpful. 

“But now ya get a whole new name! And it can be anythin’,” he offered. He tilted his head to the side to get a good look at Charlie, he had an habit of doing that, the boys teased him for looking an awful lot like a puppy. “And we’se usually the ones that come up with them.”

Perking up a bit at that, Charlie looked back and forth between the three boys on the bed. “What should it be?”

The three of them offered up a few things. Jack suggested ‘shortstop’ which was emphatically shot down by all three. Race just kept tossing out the names of various colors Charlie happened to be wearing right then, none of which sounded quite right. Albert just got shut down on ‘Yankee’ when he flopped down and hung his head upside down over the edge of the bed. 

Letting out a groan, he pressed his knuckles into his eyes, bored with the game it seemed. “Why don’t we call him Crutchie then? If all my ideas are so bad, that one makes sense.”

Jack curled his lip, the name sounding more like an insult than anything, and as about to say as much when Charlie said quietly, “I kinda like that one.”

“Really?” Jack questioned. He didn’t really get the appeal, but Charlie had perked up quite a bit at its mention. 

He nodded. “Sound a little bit like ‘Charlie’ don’t ya think? It’d be pretty easy to get used to.”

That was the longest sentence Charlie had said since he got into lodging, too, and Albert, who’d clearly been joking, sat up.

“See! I got the best names,” he snapped at Race and Jack, who rolled their eyes in succession. Turning to Charlie, he said, “I think it’s great, kid.”

Charlie, or Crutchie now, Jack supposed, nodded again, more enthusiastic this time, and looked at Jack for confirmation. He looked so excited about it, too.

Running a hand through his hair, Jack leaned forward with his elbows resting on his knees. “Crutchie,” he said, letting the name roll of his tongue a few times before looking up at the kid in front of him. “I like it, good a name as there ever was.”

Smiling again, Crutchie moved to sit next to Jack, Albert moving back to make room for him. He looked exhausted, and was gripping his crutch like a lifeline. 

Carefully, Jack pried the thing from his hand, placing it in plain view up against their bedpost. “Nobody’s gonna take it away, don’t worry.”

Crutchie bit his lip before nodding, letting out a huge yawn despite himself, it was awful late, and Jack could see Paulie start to put the littler newsies to bed. 

“Aye, you two,” Jack said, throwing a glance at Race and Albert, who’d begun bickering about god know what behind him and Crutchie. “You better get to bed, Paulie’s gotten sick of havin’ to wrestle you two down every night.”

They both rolled their eyes, but climbed into their shared bunk above Jack’s nonetheless, Paulie had chewed them out pretty bad the night before, and they weren’t looking for a repeat it seemed. 

When he turned back to Crutchie, the kid was already half asleep, leaning against Jack’s side with his head lolling forward; it had been a hell of a long day for him, and Jack too, sleep starting to pull at the edge of his brain as he lifted Crutchie to lay him down on the side of the bed opposite him. His eyes fluttered open quickly, and he looked at Jack cautiously. 

Snorting, Jack laid down next to him, pulling the blanket over them both. “You can go to sleep, don’t worry.”

Crutchie didn’t say anything, and Jack thought he’d fallen asleep, when a beat or two later he let out a soft. “Goodnight, Jack.”

Grinning through a yawn of his own, Jack turned to lay down on his side, facing the other boy. “Goodnight, Crutchie.”

The name did sound kind of nice, he figured. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hmu with content ideas and kudos/comments if you can yall!! hope u liked it!!

**Author's Note:**

> do yall like it so far?? ik the ending but im gonna make up the chapters as i go so like,, hmu in the comments section
> 
> i need validation or this will Die so im beggin for kudos fam


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